Kansas City has no shortage of civic leaders, authors, artists and activists. Many are frequent guests on KCUR's Up To Date, where we catch up on their work and expertise.
But sometimes, we just want to have a casual conversation, so we ask them five questions, or maybe a few more.
Jason Kander, former Missouri Secretary of State and host of the podcast Majority 54, joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss what he's been reading, streaming and more.
How do you feel about the current state of Kansas City right now?
I'm really excited about Kansas City, particularly from a sort of a city-wide self esteem perspective. I feel like I grew up in a town, Kansas City... that had a self esteem issue and a little bit of an inferiority complex, and I currently live in a town that is brimming with self confidence.
What are you streaming?
I am currently streaming "The Night Agent" on Netflix. But as a family, we recently watched "Man on the Inside" on Netflix, which is Ted Danson and it was created by Michael Schur, who's a friend of mine, and that show is fantastic.
What music do you listen to?
It's my favorite song. It's called, "I'm Coming Home." It's just a great song. I sort of discovered it when I was in college and I was going to school on the East Coast, Diana was here, going to UMKC, and so I think that's how most music and movie and everything else taste works, is like you discover it at a formidable moment in your life, usually when you're younger.
Jason Isbell is very much like Robert Earl Keen in that if you're a Jason Isbell fan, you're very much a fan and that group of fandom runs very deep, but it's not as wide as it should be. There are not as many fans as there should be, although increasingly there are.
But I think probably right now, the best lyricist of singer-songwriters that's very active at the moment is probably Jason Isbell. And the only active lyricist anywhere in American music that I think rivals it is probably like Kendrick Lamar or Lin-Manuel Miranda. And they're obviously in three different genres. But for me, I've been listening to a lot of Jason Isbell.
What are you reading?
My favorite John Grisham book is "A Time to Kill." It was his first and again, it was, like one of the first novels that I remember really reading and getting into, I was, like, probably 15 or 16 years old.
I am currently reading a book which comes out in, I think March or April, and it is called "The Death and Life of August Sweeney." And it is a novel about a celebrity chef, and it's his sort of life story told through his autopsy. It's written by my first cousin, Samuel Ashworth, and it's really good.
Where do you like to eat?
Where I eat most commonly, which is a very good place — we live in South Kansas City on the Missouri side — and there is a place in Mission Farms just across the state line called Enjoy Pure Food.
I'm annoyingly healthy eater most of the time. And so I really enjoy that place, you could usually catch me there in like a lunch meeting like once a week.
- Jason Kander, former Missouri Sec. of State and host of Majority 54
